


10 Stops on the Way to Forever

by ereshai, read by Khashana (Khashana)



Series: Infinity [2]
Category: Check Please! (Webcomic)
Genre: Community: pod_together, Fic and podfic together, M/M, Podfic & Podficced Works, Podfic Length: 10-20 Minutes, Soulmates
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-09-08
Updated: 2018-09-08
Packaged: 2019-06-22 15:48:55
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,866
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15585300
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ereshai/pseuds/ereshai, https://archiveofourown.org/users/Khashana/pseuds/read%20by%20Khashana
Summary: Dex doesn't believe in soulmates, and even if he did, his soulmate probably wouldn't be the person he wanted.





	10 Stops on the Way to Forever

**Author's Note:**

  * For [silentawe](https://archiveofourown.org/users/silentawe/gifts).



> Notes from ereshai: A long, long time ago, onlysilentawe prompted me to write a nurseydex soulmate fic. Here it is, finally.  
> Many thanks to Khashana for being such an enthusiastic partner in this challenge, as well as for providing feedback and beta-reading.  
>    
> Notes from Khashana: Thanks to ereshai for letting me edit fic they already wrote and probably didn't anticipate getting dragged into this challenge. Stay chill.

[Download](https://s3.amazonaws.com/khashanapodfic/10+Stops.mp3) (right click the player and select Save Audio As)

1.

Living with Nursey was…

Dex didn’t even know. It just… was.

He’d lived with a roommate before. Roommates, that one semester. He knew how to get along with others, how not to be a dick in shared living spaces. Nursey obviously did too.

It wasn’t the mechanics of living together that was the problem. There _wasn’t_ a problem.

And _that_ was the problem. They were friends, but Nursey drove Dex crazy – he had since the day they’d met. Living together should only make that worse, right? Only that wasn’t happening, and Dex was stressed the fuck out because of it.

Living with Nursey was fine. It was easy. It was fun. Nursey was the best roommate Dex had ever had, and it was getting harder and harder to tell himself that he only liked Nursey as a friend.

Dex was so fucked.

2.

“Soulmates,” Nursey said one day. He was lounging on his bed, a poetry textbook in his hand with one finger tucked in between the pages to mark his place.

“Huh?” Dex said absently. He was searching through pages and pages of code, trying to figure out where he’d forgotten a bracket or something.

“Soulmates. The presentation Ransom and Holster gave? Any of this ringing a bell, Poindexter?”

“What about the soulmate thing? We agreed it was all bullshit.”

“Yeah,” Nursey said slowly. “Bullshit.”

Dex concentrated furiously on his broken code. Why was Nursey even bringing this up? Dex didn’t need a soulmate. He didn’t _want_ a soulmate. And even if he did, it probably wouldn’t be the person he wanted it to be.

Soulmates were bullshit.

3.

Living with Nursey sucked.

Sure, they were getting along; they were getting along almost scarily well, in fact. Nursey didn’t leave his shit everywhere, at least no more than Dex did. Neither of them stayed out until 2 am and then woke the other up stumbling in all drunk. Nursey even brought Dex sandwiches when Dex was knee-deep in classwork, which was above and beyond.

Normally that would make Nursey a roommate saint, but then he went and did shit like bringing girls back to their room. Or guys. And they would sit and whisper and giggle and sometimes hold hands and be disgustingly cute and Dex couldn’t take it much longer. Why didn’t Nursey just tell him he needed the goddamn room?

…why didn’t Dex just leave the goddamn room?

Dex was the one who sucked. He was a terrible roommate.

4.

“How did you know you and Jack were soulmates, Bitty?” Nursey’s voice out in the hall woke Dex from his light doze.

He didn’t mean to eavesdrop; Nursey had just gotten back to the Haus and he probably didn’t know Dex was home. Dex wasn’t supposed to be there, but class had been cancelled and here he was, overhearing a conversation Nursey would not have had in front of him. Nursey knew what Dex thought about the whole soulmate thing.

The thing was, Dex had thought Nursey felt the same way.

“Oh, we didn’t figure that part out until after we got together,” Bitty said. “And then one day the tattoo just showed up. I think that’s usually how it works, from what I’ve heard.”

“So you don’t meet someone and just… ” There was a snap. Nursey sounded discouraged.

“Sorry, sugar, you still have to go through the whole process of dating and getting to know someone. I know it’s frustrating.”

“Yeah,” Nursey sighed.

The door to their room started to open and Dex immediately flopped down on his pillow and pretended to be asleep. Nursey didn’t need to know he’d heard any of that.

5.

Dex was spending most of his free time at Founder’s. Nursey was dating a lot and Dex was letting him have the room. He was sure Nursey would return the favor if Dex started dating. Not that Dex was thinking of dating anytime soon. He was too busy.

Instead, he had an unofficial table at Founder’s and a head start on all of his coursework. Maybe he should take up tutoring?

Nursey plopped his books down on the table across from him, startling Dex out of his contemplation. “This is your hot new hang out spot?”

“What?”

“You’re never around.” Nursey pulled a chair out and sat down like he was planning to stay there for a while.

Dex shrugged. “The Haus gets loud.”

“What’s wrong with our room?”

“I didn’t want to crash your dates,” Dex muttered.

Nursey stared at him. “Those aren’t dates, man. I mean, most of them haven’t been.”

“Oh.” Dex didn’t know what else to say.

“You should study at home more, okay?”

Dex could feel the tips of his ears burning. “Okay.”

6.

“I think the soulmates thing is real, Dex,” Nursey told him out of nowhere one day.

Dex stopped folding his laundry and turned to look at him. He didn’t think Nursey would ever actually talk to him about soulmates again, not when he’d been such a dick about it the last time. He wasn’t going to be a dick this time; he still thought it was bullshit, of course. “Why?”

“I think there’s enough proof. All these matched-up people with infinity tattoos. If it's a con, it's the longest damn con every played.”

"I don't think our friends are all sneaking out to get matching tattoos because they want to fuck with us. They could mean anything, though. Why soulmates?"

Nursey looked away and stared out the window. “I- Because I want it to be true,” he murmured.

Dex nodded. “Is that why you’ve been dating so much?”

Nursey laughed. “I told you those weren’t dates. Mostly. But kinda, yeah. Just knowing the possibility is there… I don’t want to miss my chance.”

“But if it’s not an instant thing, if you don’t find out until after you’re already with the person, what’s the point?”

“You know a lot about how this works for someone who doesn’t believe.” Nursey gave him a curious look, then shrugged. “It’s not the finding, it’s the keeping. It’s about not giving up when the relationship gets hard because I know it could be the best thing in my life.”

“That could be true of any relationship,” Dex grumbled.

“Life is full of uncertainty. It would be nice to be certain about one thing.”

7.

Dex thought he’d see less of Nursey after that, but they were actually spending more time together than ever. Nursey still brought people back to their room sometimes, but those were definitely friend hangouts and not dates.

If Dex didn’t know better, he’d say he and Nursey were dating, but that couldn’t be right. There was no way Nursey thought they could be soulmates, was there?

Finally, he had to ask. “Are we dating?”

“Took you a while to catch on, Poindexter.”

“Is this about the soulmate thing?”

“Yes? No? If it happens, it happens. If it doesn’t-”

“You dump me.” Dex had been suppressing his feelings for Nursey for months. He never thought he had a chance, and now that he did, it was all tangled up in that fucking soulmate bullshit.

“Whoa, whoa, whoa. Chill. We date as long as we both want to, got it? Soulmates or not.”

“And if your soulmate comes along? And it’s not me?”

Nursey shrugged. “My soulmate would respect my relationship status, or they aren’t really my soulmate. Anyway, there’s more than one kind of soulmate, as far as I can tell. Maybe mine’s the BFFs for life kind, like Rans and Holtzy.”

“Oh.” Dex considered this, then said, “Okay, so we’re doing this.”

Nursey nodded. Dex stood up and pulled Nursey to his feet. “How do you feel about making out, since we’re dating and everything?”

“I feel pretty good about making out. It’s a thing that should be happening.”

“Cool,” Dex said. He leaned forward and kissed him.

8.

Dex and Nursey were dating.

Dex liked being with Nursey, even when Nursey was driving him crazy. He liked hanging out with him and making out with him and practicing with him and studying with him and oh shit.

Dex could fall in love with Nursey so easily. (Maybe he already had.)

That was a bad idea. This couldn’t last.

Dex didn’t believe in soulmates, didn’t even want a soulmate, and Nursey did. (Maybe Dex did want a soulmate, as long as it was Nursey.)

Dex was so fucked.

9.

They were laying together on Nursey’s bed, Dex’s arm around Nursey as he cuddled up to Dex’s side. Dex lightly ran his finger up and down Nursey’s arm. He loved doing nothing with Nursey like this.

“That tickles,” Nursey murmured, slapping at Dex’s hand.

“Oh? What about this?” Dex went for Nursey’s side but Nursey quickly rolled on top of him.

“No you don’t.” Nursey pinned his arms to the mattress before he could try anything else and grinned down at him. “What are you going to do now, tickle boy?”

Dex fake-scowled at him, then lifted his head up. He could barely reach, but he managed to graze Nursey’s jaw with a tiny kiss.

“Laaaame,” Nursey sing-songed. He let go of Dex’s arms and kissed him full on the mouth.

Dex pulled him closer, losing himself in the feel on Nursey’s lips on his, his hands on Nursey’s body. He tried to pull Nursey’s shirt out of the way and Nursey sat up abruptly, almost hitting his head on the underside of Dex’s bed. He whipped his shirt off and bent down to kiss Dex again.

“Wait,” Dex said. “Derek, wait. What’s that?” He reached up to touch the tattoo on Nursey’s chest – a tattoo that hadn’t been there yesterday.

“What are you-“ Nursey began, then he noticed what Dex was looking at. “Is that-“ He scrambled off of Dex and ran over to the mirror. Dex followed more slowly.

Nursey was tracing the infinity symbol with reverent fingers, staring raptly at it in the mirror. He turned to Dex. “It’s the soulmate mark,” he said breathlessly.

Dex couldn’t breathe either. When? How?

He’d known this wasn’t going to last.

“Congratulations.” His voice sounded far away in his own ears.

Nursey smiled at him. “Now yours,” he said.

“What?”

Nursey, still smiling, reached out and started pulling his shirt up. Without thinking, Dex grabbed it and yanked it back down.

“C’mon, Will, let me see it. Please?” Nursey asked softly.

Dex hesitated, then pulled his shirt off in one swift motion. Might as well get it over with. He glared at the far wall.

“Will. Look.” Nursey reached out and touched his chest, right over his heart.

Dex looked down… and saw an infinity symbol on his skin, exactly like Nursey’s.

“What?” Dex moved in front of the mirror. The mark was still there. “It’s- Soulmates? Me?”

Nursey put his arms around Dex. “Who else would it be?”

10.

Living with Nursey was awesome. They drove each other crazy. They took care of each other. They fought and they made up.

Nursey was right. Life was uncertain. Dex liked having something - someone - he could be certain about.


End file.
